Servants of Love Message 2: What Lies Within?

Turn within, the answer is there! “The heart is the hub of all sacred places.” We’ve heard all these ideas and cliches in so many meditation rooms, and yoga classes. But is that really true? It depends. If you turn within, you might discover a goldmine. And you might also step on some landmines? In this week’s Sunday Message, I reference the Bible teaching where Yeshua (Jesus) says,

The Kingdom of God is within you. (Luke 16:21)

He is speaking in this case, to the Pharisees who were skeptics and religious extremists. They ask when and where the “kingdom” that Yeshua keeps talking about will manifest. He tells them, “It’s not like that! It’s not a place you can observe. It’s within you!”

As seekers of Truth and servants of love, we MUST turn within. And yes, we can find the way to God’s kingdom – his sovereignty needs to be there first and foremost. This is the teaching about “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and then all this will be added onto you.” (Matthew 6:33) There’s no doubt that the human heart is a most sacred place. And… if you’ve turned within in a serious way you also know that when we turn within, we also have to face and heal all of our inner maladies. There’s a lot of pain and old crap in there for many of us. If we can do heal and get beyond the crap, then we have the goldmine – an immeasurable treasure beyond our dreams. But if we DON’T heal what we’re carrying in there, then we have a landmine – a life-destroying bomb waiting to go off and mess up everything.

“God is within us.”“Everything we’re looking for is inside.”“The Truth dwells in your heart.”

We’re all familiar with these ideas. They form the backbone of so much of New Age philosophy. And they are super true and good. We must be careful we don’t let them be mere cliches – aka bullshit. We do have greatness within. We do have God within us, and the Truth. But we also have all of our wounds, our scars, our stuckness and stupidity. It’s all in there.

It’s not about who God is or where God is or where heaven will be some day. The spiritual path is not about believing, it’s about committing. It’s a path, so it’s about WALKING. It’s about doing the work we need to do to make ourselves the right kinds of vessels and equipping ourselves to really serve and share our deep gifts with our world.

Back to the text: Jesus said:

The Kingdom of God is Within You.

He said this to the Pharisees who were harassing him. Arguably, they were TOTAL ASSHOLES – as most religious extremists are. When I picture this scene, I imagine him talking to guys from the Taliban or the most backward hateful red-faced evangelical Christians. To these hateful jerks Jesus was saying “God’s Kingdom is Within You!” He was speaking about potential. He was presenting a reality that is available – not necessarily one that is already manifest. He is saying even within an arrogant jerk, even within the most broken person, the Kingdom is within.

In India and the Middle East, henna is used to dye hair and make tattoos and other things. The color of the dye is red, but the henna leaf is green. Mystic poets have used this as a metaphor for “God within”. The red dye is within the green leaf, but you have to know how to get it. It is “absolutely” there, “unconditionally”. But there is work to do.

God is within. But we have to mine.

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If you’re ready to mine, click here and fill out a questionnaire about your situation. I’ve been leading people to their mines for decades and I would love to help you to unearth what’s inside of you.